A £10 million initiative launched today by the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, should help businesses gain access to a new technology centre for commercialising low carbon vehicles.

Innovative approaches to transport technologies will be eligible for funding in this new competition. The selection process will select collaborative R&D projects which are most likely to result in products and systems that are strong candidates for industrialisation.

Government and industry are investing around £1 billion in the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC).

The APC will help develop the systems and supply chains needed to manufacture the next generation of low carbon vehicles here in the UK. So the Technology Strategy Board competition is expected to act as a feeder for the Centre.

Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board, said: “Low carbon vehicles represent a great opportunity for the UK. This competition, with its links to the new Advanced Propulsion Centre, will provide a route to bring innovative ideas to the consumer more quickly. And that has to be good for consumers, industry and the country as a whole.”

By fast-tracking some of the most promising ideas in low carbon vehicles towards full commercialisation, the competition – Building an Automotive Supply Chain of the Future – will help to maintain the UK’s reputation as a global leader in low carbon transport technology.

This will in turn open up further opportunities for innovative businesses to develop and exploit this technology further, said the Technology Strategy Board.